Biography

Dr. Dederich earned a BS in electrical engineering and DDS from the University of Iowa, followed by an MSc and PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Alberta. He did his specialty training in periodontics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. He is formerly an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Division of Biomaterials at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Course Director in Materials Science at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at both the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Marquette University School of Dentistry. He ran a full-time private periodontal practice in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for over 6 years before
assuming the position of Head, Department of Periodontics, at the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1998 to 2005. He has served as both Associate and Acting Chair of the Department of Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Currently he is a Professor in the Department of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, at the University of Alberta.
He also maintains a part-time specialty practice in periodontics and dental implants. His Biomedical Engineering PhD research area focused on the topic of laser/tissue interaction. His clinical interests also include implant and cosmetic dentistry. He has published his research extensively in refereed scientific journals and has lectured both nationally and internationally. He has served as a consultant to the United States National Institutes of Health, The Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Periodontology on lasers in medicine and dentistry as well as a number of refereed dental journals including the Journal of the American Dental Association and the Journal of Dental Research. From 2000-2004 he was an editor of Mosby’s annual “Yearbook of Dentistry” and currently serves on the Editorial Board of Dimensions of Dental Hygiene Journal. He served a 4-year term on the American Dental Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs, and was elected Vice-Chair of the Council on Scientific Affairs for the year 2005-6. He also served as the Chair of the American Dental Association’s Standards Committee Working Group 6.58 on Dental Lasers, a group that produced a Technical Report to the Profession outlining standards of evidence for dental laser applications. He has published over 60 publications and abstracts in refereed scientific journals, and has made over 120 scientific presentations in North America and Europe and has been a recipient of major NIH funding in the area of laser interaction with hard tissue. He is listed in Woodward and White’s Best Dentists in America (2004).